Born Ernest Duane Robinson in a small town in southern Kansas, his family moved to central Oklahoma. Attended Moore High School and worked for a aircraft manufacturing plant, doing design work. He he eventually moved to central Florida and worked in the defense industry as a designer. His love for racing he found a part time job working at the local drag strip. Producer Ron Howard visited the track and eventually used the location for the scenes in the 1989 film Parenthood. He was a natural to portray a track official and his stepson, Ryan a racers crew-member. He also was asked to paint the track emergency vehicle used in the movie which he did in two days out of his garage at home. Feeling the need to be around family he and his wife moved back to Oklahoma. Ernie hosted a local TV show called "What's you Hobby?" and also was cameraman for a local cable cooking show "Let's Eat". Now that he is retired from design work he answered the call for extras in the movie Stillwater and eventually picked up his camera and shot the stills for the movie also. Ernie was joined on set by his son Donnie who portrayed a newspaper reporter. "I enjoy meeting and talking with the diverse group of people on a movie set".